End of service announcement for IBM TS1140 tape drives

IBM TS1140 tape drives

On 26 October 2021, IBM announced plans to discontinue its maintenance services for IBM TS1140 tape drives.

Hardware support extensions won’t be generally available due to critical parts shortages. However, IBM has a number of industry-leading replacement solutions for the machines containing the tape drives that are going end of support (EOS), which can provide clients with a new tape platform for years to come.

Which Machine Type Models (MTM) are affected?

3592-E07 (TS1140 for TS3500)
3592-EH7 (TS1140 for TS4500)

What is the rationale for IBM’s decision?

These products were introduced in 2011 and 2014. IBM already announced the End of Marketing in 2019. Now, IBM is announcing End of Support (EOS) for these tape drives due to shortages in some of the parts used to replace or repair the drives. Therefore IBM is recommending customers migrate to newer tape technologies.

The EOS effective date for IBM TS1140 tape drives will be 28th February 2022.

The IBM service withdrawal letter can be viewed here.

Next steps

Speak to CSI about evaluating your tape environment and the technical refresh options available from the IBM Storage tape team
We can help customise your solution and provide additional services like hardware maintenance and premium support if required
There may be a buy-back offer available for clients returning drives, ask us about potential discounts…

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